| Author | Message | | Guest | | Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2002 3:19 am Post subject: Abrams Back in Capital Fray at Center of Mideast Battle |
| (I suppose this could be similar if one had appointed the late Gov.
George Wallace as head of the Civil Rights Movement back in the 60's.)
Abrams Back in Capital Fray at Center of Mideast Battle
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2002 Elliott Abrams, a pugnacious conservative and
passionate advocate of Israel, is no stranger to Washington's policy
wars.
But Mr. Abrams's selection this week as President Bush's director of
Middle Eastern affairs at the White House plunged him into one of the
sharpest disputes in the nation's capital the one in the
administration over how to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Mr. Abrams's appointment thrilled those who had criticized the
administration for being too tough on Israel and too deferential to
the Palestinians. But it dismayed those, especially at the State
Department, who want Israel to ease its crackdown in the West Bank
and Gaza.
An administration official said Mr. Abrams's ascension had
created "serious consternation" at the State Department. It was seen
there, he said, as likely to impede the efforts of Secretary of State
Colin L. Powell to work with European nations to press Israel and the
Palestinians to adopt a staged timetable leading to creation of a
Palestinian state in three years.
The timetable, known as a "road map," has been criticized by Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon, though he endorsed it in principle this week.
Supporters of Israel in Congress, who had also criticized the road
map approach, welcomed the appointment of Mr. Abrams.
"There are two foreign policy teams in this administration on a lot
of issues," said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, who went to
Harvard with Mr. Abrams in the 1960's. "Clearly Elliott is coming out
of the hard-line team. But that is where Bush's heart is."
Mr. Abrams comes to his new job trailed by a cloud of controversy,
most of it having to do with his pleading guilty in 1987 to the
charge that he withheld information from Congress on the Reagan
administration's efforts to assist antigovernment guerrillas in
Nicaragua.
He was pardoned by the first President Bush in December 1992. At the
time, plenty of people around Washington said Mr. Abrams would never
be back as a policy maker.
Now, not only is Mr. Abrams back though not in a position that
would require confirmation by the Senate but a raft of figures
involved in the battles over the Nicaragua guerrillas, known as the
contras, are back, as well. John M. Poindexter, a national security
adviser to President Reagan who was convicted in 1990 of five felony
counts (the convictions were later overturned), is directing a
Pentagon project that would assemble information on suspected
terrorists.
John D. Negroponte, who was ambassador to Honduras during the time
that the contras were being given aid through that country in
defiance of a law barring such aid, is ambassador to the United
Nations.
And Otto J. Reich, who was charged with running a covert domestic
propaganda campaign against the Nicaragua government, is a special
envoy for western hemisphere affairs at the State Department.
Administration officials say Mr. Abrams was picked for the Middle
East and North Africa portfolio under Condoleezza Rice, the national
security adviser, because a strong manager was needed and the
previous director, Zalmay Khalilzad, had been preoccupied with the
reconstruction of Afghanistan.
"Everybody has enormous confidence in him," a senior administration
official said. "He is not just a good manager. He is an intellectual
force in many policy areas. Whatever controversy there was in the
past is in the past."
Many of those critical of Mr. Abrams speak with admiration for his
intellect and management skills, which will be tested not only in the
Israel-Palestinian conflict but also if there is a war with Iraq,
followed by a long occupation and reconstruction.
But others say he has rankled some colleagues in the administration
already. For instance, during Secretary Powell's efforts to negotiate
a resolution on Iraq at the United Nations, Mr. Abrams spent some
weeks at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Two officials critical of Mr. Abrams said his role was to make sure
that Secretary Powell did not make too many concessions to the
Europeans on the resolution's wording, pressing a hard-line view that
was shared by Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld and Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/07/politics/07ABRA.html?
ex=1040321027&ei=1&en
=67a11e479feac48e | |  | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | *Mutt American | | Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2002 5:26 am Post subject: |
| When the Iraqi report is all translated,
when everybody agrees on what it says and doesn't say,
when we all agree on what it says Iraq doesn't have and which sites are "clean"...
That is the time for evidence.
No little holes for Saddam the Weasel to try to sneak through. | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
